John Inverarity, first-class cricketer,
coach and educator, was considering
his future after six years as Warden of
St George’s College when invited to
apply to become Cricket Australia’s
National Selector.

You’d have to say that UWA graduate John Inverarity
has accepted one of the nation’s most challenging
roles in sport: National Selector of Cricket Australia.
His every decision will be analysed by cricket
aficionados from former prime ministers to punters in
the local pub, his judgement will regularly be called
into question and he’ll be blamed for future losses.
Why did he do it?

The obvious answer is his love of the game that
remains undimmed.

“I’ve always looked for challenges,” he adds.
“I knew it would be difficult but my predecessor was
a close friend and he and others encouraged me.
I like the sense of community and belonging that
comes with sport and I’ve always liked trying to make
an enterprise better.”

When John Inverarity became national selector
late last year, there was widespread agreement that
the former Test cricketer (also considered one of
Western Australia’s best Sheffield Shield captains)
was the right man for the job on several counts.

The UWA graduate is acknowledged for his
acuity in all things cricket – from getting the best out
of players to having a photographic memory of the
strengths and weaknesses of his opponents.

He is also recognised as a great communicator,
whether captaining WA in Sheffield Shield matches,
coaching an English county team to victory in the
English County championships or mentoring students
at St George’s College. And long after his playing
days were over his advice was sought by those at the
top of international, national and State cricket.

John’s father Mervyn Inverarity was a first-class
cricketer for Western Australia during the 1920s and
30s and later a senior administrator with the WA
Cricket Association. The graduate’s earliest memories
are of playing backyard cricket with neighbourhood
kids using “dad’s big bats”.

When he became a student at Scotch College
he was immediately struck by the school’s sense of
community and by the friendships forged by sport.

“Even before I left school I wanted to be a
teacher,” he recalls. “Cricket was reasonably well to
the fore of my life at high school, so my plan was
to go to uni, get a degree in mathematics, teach,
and play cricket during the long summer breaks. At
the time, a number of Sheffield Shield players were
teachers, so I could see it worked well.”

He first played for WA as an 18-year-old and went
on to play six Test matches for Australia between
1968 and 1972. One of his most remembered
cricketing moments was when, as an opening
batsman he was last man out during the 1968 Ashes
Test at The Oval when Derek Underwood claimed
victory for England in the final Test. “People still ask
me to autograph pictures of the occasion,” he says.

As a State player he captained WA to Sheffield
Shield glory four times in five years and when his
teaching took him to South Australia, his new team
went on to win in 1981-82. After retiring from State
cricket in 1985 at the age of 41, he went on to coach
both Kent and Warwickshire.

Cricket has undergone radical change during
John Inverarity’s playing and coaching career and
he’s concerned for young players who get selected,
get a salary and feel no need to work or study.

“Cricket is all they do, and I feel that’s too
narrowing,” he observes. “My life experience has
made me very supportive of young sports people
pursuing their studies because I believe no matter
how good you are, you need a hinterland away from
your sport.

“I look for good temperament, among other
things, in young players. When you’re playing at the
highest level in extremely pressured situations, you
need to be able to rise to the occasion.

“We want players who have concern for others,
take team work seriously, act with composure and
dignity under pressure and enhance the others in
the team with their presence.

“I think in this professional era where a great
deal of money is involved, the game can become
performance-dominated. Performance and winning
is always important but it can dominate in a way
it shouldn’t.

“You can learn a lot from sport: how to relate
in groups, how to cop it sweet, deal with success,
jubilation, dismay, rejection. You get a very healthy
buffeting if exposed to all that, but we need to
make sure that particular aspect of sport doesn’t
get left behind.”

John Inverarity has always cautioned against the
hype that makes a team feel it commands the high
ground. His scholarly background makes him more
than aware of the rise and fall of empires and he
has warned that “when a team feels invincible,
when you think that because you are Australians
or because you are the Romans that you are
inherently better, then the whole thing can soon
come crashing down…”

The graduate says that his teaching – at Guildford
Grammar, Applecross Senior High, Scotch College,
Pembroke School in Adelaide (with stints in the
United Kingdom at Tonbridge School and King’s
College School, Wimbledon) – taught him a lot about
communicating effectively. “I was always a teacher
who played cricket,” he says.

After six years as Warden of UWA’s oldest
residential college, St George’s, John Inverarity
is pleased that the residential experience will be
more widely available at UWA in future. He strongly
recommends it to students, but says that choosing a
college involves far more than finding a place to stay.